Set in Stone: A contradiction of possibilities
by Brif87
Summary: Hiro managed to save Charlie from Sylar...kind of. Now can Sylar save himself from Charlie? This is for all of you who loved Charlie and want her to liiiiiiive.
1. Loopholes Suck

Summary: If eyes are the windows to the soul, dreams are the windows to the subconscious; What if Hiro and Charlie's powers were a little stronger than everyone assumed?

Rated: T for violence and shtuff.

Spoilers: Through Fallout, AU after that.

Disclaimer: I own not-a-thing. Absolutely nothing. So much nothing that if someone were to sue me, they're luck would instantly plummet and the IRS would take everything and leave them with my nothing.

Destiny and Fate were strange beings, if they could even be called beings. Fate and Destiny were often cursed, the unchangeable mistresses of all that struck harshly at the innocent, and allowed evil men to prosper. But Destiny and Fate had never been challenged. They had been scorned without a doubt, but never had they been tangibly challenged, that is, until Hiro Nakamura.

Hiro Nakamura seemed to be one of the burgeoning people of an unimportant planet in an unimportant galaxy in an unimportant universe. Hiro Nakamura was far from unimportant however. For reasons that Destiny could not ascertain, Hiro Nakamura had a power that was inexorably linked with Destiny.

The two beings of unimaginable power delved into this matter, personally taking an interest. It seemed that the reason Hiro had attempted to twist Destiny Itself, was a reason in which Destiny and Fate were experts—Star crossed love. Two people fall in love. One or both of them die. What further perturbed the Two was the woman Hiro was trying to save. This woman seemed average, even for the breed of fleshlings that had gained some superiority over their genetic cousins. This woman was far from average, however. This woman, this "Charlie" was inexorably tied to Fate.

Now some may get confused and question the difference between Destiny and Fate. "Are they not the same thing?" the unenlightened would ask. No. They are far from the same. If you wanted to simplify it, Destiny was the Lead-In, it was someone's destiny to become a lawyer. Fate however, was the End Scene. It was that lawyer's fate be shot by a disgruntled ex-con.

In the case of these two evolved humans, it was different. You see, Hiro was destined to command time and space, but only in concurrence with Destiny. Charlie was fated to die as Fate foretold. Neither seemed to be doing what they were supposed to.

Loopholes. The Two were assured that Loopholes had enabled this..thing..to occur. Hiro could not directly go against Destiny, but changes he made indirectly, _could_ change the course Destiny had set. So it was that when Hiro was transported back to the present, unable to save Charlie directly, he went on, assured that Destiny had thwarted him. Now if it had only stayed that way. Hiro returned to his friend Ando, and they met up with the prophet Isaac. It was then that Hiro got his idea. His idea to indirectly help Charlie, The Waitress. An idea that would later give Destiny a very big migraine. He had the prophet paint the likeness of Sylar from accounts garnered from Peter, the Dreamer and reversed time only minutes before he had previously vanished from Charlie's side. At a run, he whisked his way into the diner where Charlie worked, and threw down the folder that contained the painting and only two words. _Sylar. Death._ Moments later, only to vanish back to the present.

Of course Charlie received the letter, and of course, Charlie took it to heart. When the time came for Charlie to die, she thought back with her astoundingly clear memory, recognized the man in the corner with the picture in her apron pocket and fled into the back. When he soundlessly broke into the room, she smashed a can of strained peas over his head. It was at that moment that Fate stepped in and pulled Its trump card: The blood clot in Charlie's brain. It was there in the event that Hiro managed to succeed in his mission. Fate had underestimated this Sylar however, and he quickly disarmed Charlie and began to slice through her skull, even as her blood clot loosed itself upon Charlie's brain.

Now, an unusually wise human once said _"If there is a soul, it would surely be in the brain."_

And surely it was. Instantly upon death, the soul would flutter free from its tethers to the fleshy brain and flutter wherever souls were want to go. It was with the rare miscalculation of Fate, and the swift viciousness of a killer that much like Hiro, Charlie found her own loophole. The clot in Charlie's brain exploded and tethered Charlie's soul more tightly to her brain. Normally this would not matter as eventually the brain would decay, and the soul would be free. In this instance though, it mattered immensely. So it was that Sylar retrieved Charlie's brain complete with her tethered soul inside of it, and did what super powered murdering sociopaths do with brains. Sylar took from the Waitress' brain her power, but along with it, her soul.

And so it had come to be that Hiro thwarted Destiny by setting into action events that would give Charlie the ability to evade Fate Itself. You see, Charlie had died as Fate demanded; but that didn't mean that she couldn't still contact the living, that she couldn't say..manage to wind up inside of the head of a murderer, conscious and hidden away in his subconscious, just waiting for the moment when she would bring about her revenge, and avenge her own death.

Yes, now it is you understand the gravity of the situation. And now you understand why Destiny and Fate rather dislike the planet Earth.


	2. Charlie in Psycholand

Disclaimer: Not my stuff. Just manipulating it to my whimsy. Tim Kring gets props for Heroes.

Sylar had to get the Cheerleader. Her power..with a power like that..he'd be unstoppable. He had been tricked at the high school, but the girl, Suresh's girl had given him the means to set himself free. Now he was out, but where would the cheerleader be? Sylar decided the hospital would be the best bet—There had to be a record of her there somewhere.

Getting to the hospital was child's play. He was Sylar, why wouldn't he be able to sneak into the hospital, and then the record room. A few turns, and he was at the entrance to the room. He commanded the door to unlock with his telekinesis and went inside. Now it was only a matter of looking through the files.

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Peter was dreaming again. How could he tell he was dreaming? No, he wasn't blowing up in this one, but he was sitting on the roof of the building he'd jumped off of. But what was unusual about that? Nothing unless you considered that a woman he'd never seen was standing next to him, and handing him a glass of water.

"Can I take your order?" She had a nice smile. Peter decided that as far as imaginary dream girls went, she was very pretty.

"Wake up. Wake up. I want to wake up now." Peter thought for a second and then realized he might have accidentally insulted the not-a-woman.

"No offense to you." He added quickly.

"None takin'," she laughed. "But you might want to hold on a second." Her southern drawl was endearing.

"My name is Charlie." She said, holding out her hand.

"Peter. I'm Peter." He held out his hand in return and they shook. Charlie seemed pleasant enough. They chatted amicably about the weather, news, life in general. They had spent what seemed like an hour or two just talking when Peter began to feel the beginnings of what he hoped was him waking up.

The dream landscape-dreamscape-began to blur and look less realistic. Oddly enough, Charlie still looked the same. She smiled like she knew he was waking up. Peter felt like he should say something to her.

"It was nice meeting you Charlie, even if you aren't exactly..real.. it was relaxing talking to you. I have to go save the world now. It's this big thing, Cheerleader, crazy time bending Asian guy. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime." Something in Charlie's eyes changed then. The carefree gleam faded into something a little more dark, and a lot more passionate. That was when she said something Peter had never really expected.

"You know Hiro?" The tone of her voice was mournful, but longing and reminiscent at the same time. There were too many emotions in it, and it hurt Peter to think about why she sounded like that. All of this, he'd think about later when he went over the dream again and again in the safety of the waking world. But for just this moment between dream and reality, Peter had only one thing to say.

"Wh-wh-what?"

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There were too many cheerleaders in this town. Sylar had found five girls that fit his Cheerleader's match and that were themselves, cheerleaders. He supposed it was time to start whittling that number down. He hoped that she was one of these girls, he really hated wasting time. One red herring cheerleader was enough for him.

While Sylar was pondering his next move, deep in his subconscious Charlie was reeling. It had been a few days since she'd been murdered. She realized that now. She'd been murdered. She'd been murdered and now she was in her murderer's body. He didn't know she was here, but…she had access to everything that was him. His memories would have given her nightmares if she needed to sleep (which she found out she didn't, which was a little off-putting). It was especially horrible because somehow she still seemed to have her amazing unstoppable memory, even thought she didn't have a body, and weirdly enough, a brain to memorize things _in_. Then there was the question of Peter. That was the first time she'd been able to leave Gabriel-Sylar-to strike out on her own. She hadn't been able to read his memories like an open book as it was with Gabriel, but she kept getting glimpses of things; shadows that writhed in the corners of her eyes, but when she looked, there was nothing. Peter himself was very nice. But even more, Peter knew Hiro.

Peter must have some sort of special power too. Powers—It was still hard to wrap her head around. But she could get over anything, she was dead and yet not. So someone flying around like Superman was not as hard to believe as it once would have been. Charlie had to find a way to get back in touch with Peter; had to find a way to tell him that Sylar was going to kill again, and more than just your random person that might have something special about them.

It wasn't in Charlie's nature to stoop to anything, but she decided that she'd do anything possible to stop Sylar—Even if that meant being less-than-nice. After all, he murdered her. She thought she was allowed one free pass.


End file.
